The Startling Data on Teen Driving

Research results on teenage drivers by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety were more than surprising. They were downright startling.

Past police reports of accidents involving teenage drivers suggested that distraction played a role in just 14 percent of their crashes. This research project, which placed cameras in the cars of several thousand Midwest teenagers, captured nearly 1,700 crashes, plus near misses and unintended off road excursions. These videos, which showed what the drivers were doing six seconds before the crash, prove that distractions are a major problem. In this study, distractions played a significant role in 58 percent of the crashes or loss of vehicle control. Distraction was a factor in 89 percent of the crashes that occurred after the teen unintentionally left the roadway and 76 percent of the rear-end crashes.

“Access to crash videos has allowed us to better understand the moments leading up to a vehicle impact in a way that was previously impossible,” Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says in a written statement. “The in-depth analysis provides indisputable evidence that teen drivers are distracted in a much greater percentage of crashes than we previously realized,” Kissinger says.

Participants in the study were between the ages of 16 and 19. In many cases, they resided in states that have laxer rules governing their driving than Connecticut, which has graduated driver licensing laws.

Connecticut prohibits the use of cell phones by 16- or 17-year-old drivers. Drivers over the age of 17 are prohibited from using hand-held cell phones while driving. Connecticut also has prohibitions on drivers under 18 carrying passengers during their first year driving with a license.

However, Connecticut’s laws are often ignored. In many cases, parents are, if not willing, then passive accomplices by allowing or ignoring these activities. Often, these parents place convenience ahead of safety. In other cases, their acceptance of their teen’s law breaking is based on a philosophical objection to what they see as governmental overreach into their parenting.

In the AAA study, interaction with other passengers was the greatest source of distraction, playing a role in 15 percent of the crashes. Cell phone use followed, with a 12 percent involvement.

The use of cell phones was particularly troubling, as the video evidence showed that it distracted the average teen that crashed for 4.1 of the final six seconds before the impact. More than half of the cell-phone-using teens who crashed into the vehicle ahead made no effort to either brake before or steer around the collision.

Looking at the video these cameras captured revealed one additional fact. Once these teens got themselves into trouble, they demonstrated incompetence in their attempts to get out of trouble. More often than not, they dramatically overcorrected or steered in the wrong direction, ensuring a complete loss of control.

Fortunately, no teen died in a crash during the study. But that isn’t always the case. In 2013, the last year for which data are available, 963,000 16- to 19-year-old drivers were involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes. These resulted in 383,000 injuries and 2,865 deaths. And this does not reflect the true scope of the problem. Many minor crashes involving teens go unreported for fear of tickets and rising insurance premiums.